Life on the Road

We’ve stayed at 2 campgrounds not far from Boston, both fairly close to one another, near Highway 1, and I think we’re ready to provide an overview of the two places. These are some of the closest campgrounds to Boston, without venturing near Cape Cod. I don’t want to really rate or compare them, though; they’re two very distinct camping experiences, and you have to decide for yourself what you’re looking for.

Normandy Farms

1-866-67-FARM; Foxboro, Massachusetts

The site has been in the owners’ family since the 18th century, so you would think their overhead might be low; the thing that will strike you first about Normandy Farms is the price. At $70-72/night, this is one of the most expensive places we have ever stayed, including a few hotels.

However, if you look past the pricetag, you will quickly see the value. This park is more than a campground– it’s a resort. We often see parks calling themselves “resorts” when they don’t offer much more than a relatively woodsy site with hookups. But this place: reeee-sort! There are five swimming pools, some indoors, some out, and two hot tubs. An extensive rec center. A fully-stocked camp store. Area attraction information and tours. You can rent little play houses for your kids to have parties in. Every weekend there are activities and arts and crafts at the snack bar area– and we’re not talking about glueing beads to paper plates, here. There’s a frisbee golf course in the back woods. The sites are level, and there are many, many pull-throughs big enough for a BIG RV. This is New England, and even the pull-throughs are wooded. We were lucky and our Internet dish found a signal, but we were never able to catch the Dish Network satellite– too woodsy and too far north, I suppose.

The main drawbacks to this park are that they’re often booked solid, especially weekends, and the price. We did run into trouble early in our visit, when we were given a brand new site that hadn’t even been fully hooked up yet, and was right next to the new site construction. That was the very beginning of the camping season, however, and I’m confident it was a fluke.

Canoe River Campsites

(508) 339-6462; Mansfield, Massachusetts.

This is the park where we’re staying this week. It’s half the cost of Normandy Farms, and, while it’s a nice park, it doesn’t compare to the resort. Canoe River has a full camp store, but the place feels cramped. Again, we had some trouble initially with our site, and again the staff were able to find us a new site to move to (and one that has clear overhead access for the satellite dish). If it’s not placed in comparison with Normandy Farms, it’s a perfectly fine campground, and comparing the two, given their price differences, is unfair.

The park has 2 pools and several ponds which are populated by ducks, swans, and other water fowl. One of the minor frustrations with the park has to do with how crowded with kids it is; even getting home at 10 at night, I find myself swerving to not run into a family with several small kids. We find that the majority of our neighbors are older rigs here, and a lot of the guests are weekenders.

One thing I love about the campground is their website, which has a clickable campground map, with photos of each individual campsite and a satellite directional arrow to help guide you in selecting a spot. Few parks go to the trouble to take and upload so many pictures.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS